SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif- Four legged deputies are making a big difference in helping to fight crime in San Luis Obispo County. Now the SLO County Sheriff's Office is trying to give back to the furry K9 deputies with a fundraiser for the unit.
Your Central Coast News spent a training day with the K9's to see what they do first hand. "Suspect come out now or I'll send the dog! Suspect come out now!," said a Sheriff's Deputy in training holding back K9 deputy Hondo. "Once a K9 announcement is made we would wait up to 30 seconds up to a minute for the suspect to surrender if he doesn't surrender then we will start our search with the dog," said Allen Barger, a Sheriff's Deputy.
The Sheriff's K9 unit has grown from 1 officer to 6 in just a year and a half. "They can do suspect tracking, they can look for missing persons they can look for disabled adults they can also search for drugs," said Deputy Barger.
Like Dutch who works in the jail sniffing out for drugs and by having these dogs it helps to reduce crime and multiplies patrol. "Instead of putting two deputies in a car at night we can put 1 deputy with his backup as the dog, it saves us the cost of having to put a second deputy in the car, plus it puts another car on the street to handle calls," said Deputy Barger.
The dogs are trained once a week and typically one is on the job everyday. "Just the mere presence of having the dog come out in front of the suspect, most of the time the suspect will give up automatically," said Deputy Barger. So the Sheriff's Office wants to keep K9 deputies in business in order to keep the county safer.
The Sheriff's Office is holing two fundraiser's where you can see the K9 unit in action.
April 6: Moose Lodge of Pismo Beach 3pm-6pm
April 20: Santa Margarita Ranch 3pm-6pm
